Learning to uni...on a Coker!

Unicycles and Equipment
1

skurland@juggler.net writes:
>Step 1: Buy Coker. It arrives 3/16/2.
>Step 2: Buy videos and Dancey book and flail around aimlessly roughly 2.5
>months without learning how to unicycle.
>Step 3: Buy Halpern’s Anyone Can Ride A Unicycle…
I now stand corrected (actually I am sitting). Someone HAS in fact learned
to uni on a Coker. That is really amazing. Not too smart, maybe, but at
least in can be done! (I have told many people that it’s nearly impossible
and no one would ever do it). Sorta like learning to drive a car by using
a formula one race car. Boy – if you have the patience and skill to learn
on a Coker, you can probably pick up new tricks on a smaller uni in no
time.

David
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01

2

Re: Learning to uni…on a Coker!

“David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu> wrote in message
news:mailman.1023586756.20076.rsu@unicycling.org…
> skurland@juggler.net writes:
> >Step 1: Buy Coker. It arrives 3/16/2.
> >Step 2: Buy videos and Dancey book and flail around aimlessly roughly 2.5
> >months without learning how to unicycle.
> >Step 3: Buy Halpern’s Anyone Can Ride A Unicycle…

> I now stand corrected (actually I am sitting). Someone HAS in fact learned
> to uni on a Coker. That is really amazing. Not too smart, maybe, but at
> least it can be done! (I have told many people that it’s nearly impossible
> and no one would ever do it). Sort of like learning to drive a car by
using
> a formula one race car. Boy – if you have the patience and skill to learn
> on a Coker, you can probably pick up new tricks on a smaller uni in no
> time.

Well, maybe, but I don’t want a smaller uni. Cokers rawk. I spend most of
my juggling practice time banging my head against the wall of the 5-ball
cascade instead of picking up more easy 3-ball tricks, too.

On the other hand, once I can ride*, turn*, free mount, stop*, dismount*,
figure ride, climb hills, slalom, idle, ride long distance, ride backwards,
pick up objects, and spin, I’ll be out of Halpern advice and back to trying
to figure stuff out on my own, which, as you can see from step 2 above,
doesn’t work that well. Maybe I can nag him into writing another book…
though learning to juggle or walk dogs or triathlon on a Coker should absorb
more practice time.

Picking up objects, by the way, seems to be the most serious challenge, at
least on a Coker; maybe impossible.

3

Learning on a Coker before riding a smaller uni is impressive indeed! Were I wearing a hat, I would take it off to you.

Whether the skills will be easily transferable to a smaller uni is an interesting question - riding a Coker is so unlike riding anything smaller.

When riding my Coker, I feel like I am using the pedals to pump more energy into a flywheel, whereas on smaller unis, there is little or no flywheel effect. This means that the smaller unis require a quicker reflex for putting back pressure on the rising pedal when there is a wobble. Where the Coker rolls over or through a minor obstacle almost unstoppably, the smaller uni needs to be ridden through, step by step.

I know when I got straight onto my 24 after doing a very fast 2 - 3 mile blast on the Coker, I found the 24 almost unrideable for a minute or two. I don’t notice such a huge difference between any of my other unis.

As for the juggling: can anyone out there idle a Coker, coz I can’t even begin to see how I’d start. I can stop it under control, but the slightest back pedal sends the Coker kicking out behind me and there’s no way I can stop it. Any advice on Coker idling would be gratefully received.

(Perhaps I need a weightbelt?) :wink:

4

There is someone who has posted to the newsgroup who either owns ONLY a Coker or learned to ride on a Coker, like Scott (the holyman) Kurland. I’m sorry but I can’t remember which it is. I was thinking it was Dan Leff or Mike Sliger. I apologize if I am incorrectly accusing you two.

Scott, there are several who have idled Cokers and claim that, although it can be done, it requires too much effort to be worthwhile. Their accomplishments (and my own) pale compared to that of you learning on a Coker.

Will you now be the first to ride on water?

5

Re: Learning to uni…on a Coker!

> There is someone who has posted to the newsgroup who either owns ONLY a
> Coker or learned to ride on a Coker, like Scott (the holyman) Kurland.
> I’m sorry but I can’t remember which it is. I was thinking it was Dan
> Leff or Mike Sliger. I apologize if I am incorrectly accusing you two.
>
> Scott, there are several who have idled Cokers and claim that, although
> it can be done, it requires too much effort to be worthwhile. Their
> accomplishments (and my own) pale compared to that of you learning on a
> Coker.

Wow, massive street cred from the unicyclists. If I’d known learning on a
Coker was going to make me seem cool, I’d’ve bitten the bullet and gotten a
20", sheesh.

As for the idling… it’s a useful commuter skill. I can do it - sort of -
holding onto the minivan. Practice, practice… hard to measure ‘too much
effort to be worthwhile.’ You could say the same thing about unicycling, if
you’re of a utilitarian bent. Or juggling.
>
> Will you now be the first to ride on water?

Sure, in late December, no problem. I’ll be in Chicago, see…

6

Re: Learning to uni…on a Coker!

harper.604sm@timelimit.unicyclist.com writes:
>
>Will you now be the first to ride on water?

I am sure many of us have ridden on ice, so perhaps we need to specify the
water’s state as being liquid. And then, I have ridden over big puddles
where I thought that I was being held up by the cement beneath, but maybe
I was wrong.

Truly, tho, anyone who can learn on a Coker can do just about anything.

David

Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01

7

Re: Learning to uni…on a Coker!

I kidna feel, anyone who can learn to unicycle at all, let alone a corker,
can learn to do anything

__
Trevor andersen

8

I have exactly the same experience. On my 26" with long cranks, I can stop on a dime and think stroke-by-stroke. Same for the 20". On the Coker, I think of adding and subtracting rotational momentum.

One mental construct that REALLY helped me… You know how they say, say “I am a pendulum, I am a pendulum…” to yourself to help you idle? Well do that, but think of the upper part of the pendulum, the fulcrum, as being about 5-10 feet over your head. It’s a looong pendulum.

This really helps me not to rock back too soon on the backwards trip, but to travel a ways linearly while I slowly bring that balance point back forwards again.

I’ve been able to idle two-footed several times with each foot using 150mm cranks, but have a ways to go before I can do it consistently upon demand. I haven’t tried 1-idling or 2-idling yet, nor one-foot idling.

9

Re: Learning to uni…on a Coker!

“harper” <harper.604sm@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:harper.604sm@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
> Scott, there are several who have idled Cokers and claim that, although
> it can be done, it requires too much effort to be worthwhile. Their
> accomplishments (and my own) pale compared to that of you learning on a
> Coker.

not that hard, see http://odin.prohosting.com/~jmjmjm/unicycle/

strong legs help, long legs help. It’s harder on short cranks.

Wave your arms lots and it isn’t that hard at all.

It isn’t vital for commuting, but now I can do it I probably idle once or
twice per ride to work rather than having to worry so much about timing
riding up to traffic lights correctly.

Joe

10

Wow those are some really impressive videos.